2017 Films

Haka and Guitars

(screening followed after interval by Leanna and Dan)

During the Pacific’s most bloody Civil War, the New Zealand army found a way to achieve peace without guns and violence. Through the powerful influence of women and multiculturalism ‘Haka and Guitars’ shows the world there is a way to achieve peace in our time. Fiona Cassidy (NgatiKuri, Te Aupouri, Te Rarawa) , a former Major in the NZ army, returns to Bougainville to reflect on ‘Operation Belisi’, modern histories most successful peacekeeping mission.

Auckland International Film Festival and Phoenix Film Festival Melbourne – ‘Best Documentary’.

Documentary/ 52 mins / New Zealand/2016

Leanna and Dan

Follow Raglan fire fighters Leanna and Dan Mills as they train for then compete in firefighter stair climbing competitions.

The story of the American Impressionist movement was closely tied to a love of gardens and a desire to preserve nature in a rapidly urbanising nation. Travelling to studios, gardens and iconic locations throughout the US, UK and France this mesmerising film, narrated by Gillian Anderson, is a feast for the eyes.

‘Director Phil Grabsky documents it with his customary meticulous care.’ The Guardian.

A troubled town is plunged into chaos when a boy accidentally makes a new friend and where a military experiment gone wrong has some unexpected consequences. Against that backdrop, a young boy discovers and befriends a dinosaur, even as a military leader seeks to kill it.

‘An amiable, action-filled adventure that will entertain audiences of all ages.’ Stuff.

The story of prolific rapper, actor, poet and activist Tupac Shakur from his early days in New York to his status as one of the world’s most recognised and influential voices. Against all odds, Shakur’s raw talent, powerful lyrics and revolutionary mindset establish him as a cultural icon whose legacy continues to grow after his death.

It’s the 1970’s, a drought has an unexpected side effect: as people empty their swimming pools, a group of teen surfers from the ‘Dogtown’ area of Venice Beach, California move in with skateboards, and a new sport is born. Based on a true story, this film follows ‘Z-Boys’ skate team as they revolutionize competitions with a more aggressive form of skateboarding, propelling three of them into stardom but shredding their friendships. Soak up the time and place.

This Oscar-nominated documentary draws an astonishing, challenging and utterly contemporary examination of race in the United States entirely from the writings and interview footage of civil rights icon James Baldwin.

“Whatever you think about the past and future of what used to be called ‘race relations’ – white supremacy and the resistance to it, in plainer English – this movie will make you think again, and may even change your mind. Though its principal figure, the novelist, playwright and essayist James Baldwin, is a man who has been dead for nearly 30 years, you would be hard-pressed to find a movie that speaks to the present moment with greater clarity and force, insisting on uncomfortable truths and drawing stark lessons from the shadows of history…To call I Am Not Your Negro a movie about James Baldwin would be to understate [director Raoul] Peck’s achievement. It’s more of a posthumous collaboration, an uncanny and thrilling communion between the filmmaker… and his subject. The voice-over narration (read by Samuel L. Jackson) is entirely drawn from Baldwin’s work. Much of it comes from notes and letters written in the mid-1970s, when Baldwin was somewhat reluctantly sketching out a book, never to be completed, about the lives and deaths of Medgar Evers, Malcolm X and Martin Luther King Jr…His published and unpublished words – some of the most powerful and penetrating ever assembled on the tortured subject of American identity – accompany images from old talk shows and news reports, from classic movies and from our own decidedly non-post-racial present…I Am Not Your Negro is a thrilling introduction to his work, a remedial course in American history, and an advanced seminar in racial politics – a concise, roughly 90-minute movie with the scope and impact of a 10-hour mini-series or a literary doorstop.” — A.O. Scott, NY Times“One of the 10 best films of the year.” -New York Times